


Cracks in the Mask

by L_The_other_consulting_detective



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Agression, Drabble, Imprisonment, M/M, Not Canon Compliant, Post S7, Sanda doesn't die, Shiro gets his say, sanda pov
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-05
Updated: 2018-12-05
Packaged: 2019-09-11 23:20:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,292
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16861936
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/L_The_other_consulting_detective/pseuds/L_The_other_consulting_detective
Summary: Sanda sits behind thick glass, perhaps that's what stops Shiro, the cracks in said glass testify that if he was the monster the Galra were trying for, it wouldn't be.He sucks in a breath and she shudders, her mistakes were already suffocating her, now they're looking at her with icy grey eyes and speaking with the voice of a man who's family she nearly destroyed.





	Cracks in the Mask

It's not cold like she thought it would be. The room is barren except a soft mat for her to sleep and space for her to relieve herself but the temperature is comfortable and they allow her to read for several hours a day. It's more than she deserves, according to most. She likes to think that her intentions counted, at least a little and that maybe it's exactly what she deserves but that one day she might redeem herself.

Sendak was convincing and Sam had been right, she hadn't known, hadn't really understood. Most of what she'd read in the days since Voltron had saved them all, since the paladins had been hurt, was accounts of the empire. She knows more now, enough to see that she was always blind. She'd known already that she was a fool.

The moment that she'd been in a cell, listening to the paladins as they desperately tried to find a way to help, to save Earth, Shiro, everyone, she'd realized exactly the choice she'd made. Five good people, soldiers yes, but five nearly  _children_ who had already given everything they had to the fight and who were wells of strength, of power that Sanda had been willing to sacrifice. It was the guilt and the need to prove she could do more than hurt that drove her to her reckless attack of the Galran with the gun. She'd only lived because the Paladins were as kind as they were strong.

"You have a visitor." The box by the triple seal door, the only way in or out of her box, informs her. She nods, it's not like she's going to turn down any company at this point. The first seal opens and in steps Captain Shirogane in a perfectly pressed uniform. Sanda sighs, she could do without another lecture.

The second seal opens and he steps through, allowing it to close behind him, the third seal stays closed, a layer of glass between the two of them. She stands before him at parade rest, noting that he's mimicked the posture easily and is watching her carefully.

"Cut the feeds Pidge."

Sands sucks in a breath as an answer crackles through what must be a personal com on the Captain's hidden wrist, "Feed interrupted, you have as long as you need Shiro. Keith says-" 

He cuts the comm off and Sanda frowns, it's unlike him to disregard anyone, let alone his team. Still, she isn't sure why he's cut the surveillance and the uncertainty makes her nervous so she tries to take control of the conversation.

"Shiro-"

" **No."**

His voice is cutting and the smooth expression cracks, his mouth twists up and his eyes go diamond hard.

"You-" He takes a breath, stance shifting forward, hands dropping to his side as he rolls to the balls of his feet. Sanda knows a fighting stance when she sees one and she takes a step back, heedless of the glass. Shirogane is terrifying when he speaks again.

"You almost cost me  _everything._ You were too determined to keep your eyes shut and to be in control that you didn't listen. Not to Sam, not to Iverson, not to me, not to  _Keith._ "

She flinches, there it is, the weight on the Voltron Leader's name that makes no sense.

"You gave them to Sendak! Do you know what he would've done with them if they hadn't been so strong?"

He pauses, hand coming to rest on the glass as he levels her with his stare, it's his flesh hand and she's sure the other would've pushed right through. He seems to be waiting for an answer and she shakes her head.

"Death would've been a kindness. Allura is Altean, he would've done unspeakable things to her and he knows us, he fought us again and again and he knows what we mean to one another. He would've made Lance watch, made him hurt her, would've broken each of them in turn. You thought that I would ever let you do it?"

Sanda swallows, it's another question, "I thought that you were a rational man, one who could see the greater good-"

Shiro makes an inhuman noise and punches the glass, cracks spiderwebbing away from his human fist and blood smearing along the indent, "THERE IS NO GREATER GOOD!"

He takes a breath, gains some control, "There is nothing I would not do for them. You don't know, you don't understand the things we've seen. They are my _family_. The only person I had left on Earth is dead, because of you. Adam Whitaker died because you wouldn't  _listen_ to reason."

Oh. His fiance, "I thought that had ended."

"It had. He was still my friend, still worth more than the death you gave him."

She frowns at him, all of this is insane. The Captain Shirogane she's known is calm in the face of all, collected beyond reason and strong in a way that makes him a fitting leader for a team called Atlas. The man before her is just on the outside of insane and it  _scares_ her in a way she doesn't care to admit.

"For all that he would've done to Lance, to Allura. The way he would've taken glee out of snapping Pidge in his hands or crushing Hunks heart, there aren't words for what would've happened to Keith. He's the Black Paladin, he is a Blade of Marmora, son to one of their most notorious, he is a traitor in the eyes of a loyalist like Sendak and-" Shiro pulls a breath in and Sanda is beginning to realize that his unrest centers around this, around what might've happened to the Paladins, to Keith, "He is my greatest weakness. You handed my heart over to my personal demon and didn't even have the grace to die for it."

" _Shiro."_ A new voice breaks the spell that Sanda is trapped in as her breath rushes out of her. Keith himself steps through the second seal, pulling Shiro's fist free of the glass and pressing their foreheads together. The Captain closes his eyes and Sanda can see it then, the depth of her betrayal. She already knew what it meant to Earth, to so many, but she hadn't thought it could be more personal than the paladins themselves, she was wrong.

Shiro's prosthetic cradles Keith's face for a long moment before they part and Shiro returns to parade rest.

"Forgive me. It was cruel of me to come here. I'm sure you already know your wrongs." He says the words, looking directly at her, with such genuine apology it startles her but then again, this is the Shirogane she knows. Keith beside him stares at her and she can't meet his eyes.

"I've requested you be moved out of isolation."

Her head jerks up, hope bubbling as she takes in the picture the two of them make, powerful now that the masks of civility are back, "For all that you hurt, you fought with us too and you don't deserve this."

"Thank you." She manages but Keith has one more thing to say, "I'll ensure the move, but you won't ever see us again. We're done from here, there's a war to end and then we're going to come back and live our lives. So whatever happens to you, please, don't try to reach us."

She doesn't get the opportunity to respond before they leave, the ice in Shiro's eyes reminding her of the fact that despite fractured glass he never once used his stronger arm. Maybe she hadn't seen the slip she thought, just a calculated warning. She shudders as she watches them go. Good people they may be, but there's something monstrous beneath. 

 


End file.
